Towards Tamil Eelam: London Speech[March 4, 2012]
(Given to Tamil people living in London at Putney Leisure Centre)

This speech has been unusually difficult for me to prepare, because I
am so angry with the whole world, and most of the people in it, including
many of the victims of oppression. I will explain underway. I try to speak
my talks and not read them, but this topic is too complex for me to rely
on my spontaneity, so I have chosen to write it, and then rewrite it,
and end up still angry.

Why did I, a white westerner get involved in this crazy world of Sinhalese
and Tamils? I knew nothing about Sri Lanka until the end of the internal
war, May 2009. I was asked by the Latin American Friendship Association
in Tamil Nadu, India to look into it, because they knew of my work with
Cuba and the Bolivarian Alliance of the Peoples of our America (ALBA).

I got involved in solidarity with your people’s struggle because
you have been so brutally treated, and because of the moral principle
of solidarity with the oppressed, the struggle for justice.

In the land of my birth, The Devil’s Own Country, I experienced
similar injustice committed against the native peoples and the black
people as Tamils suffer. In the 1960-70s, I joined with millions of
brothers and sisters of all colors to fight racism, to struggle for
equal rights, for education and health care for all, the basic right
to vote, and to assist the Vietnamese-Cambodians-Laotians win back their
countries from the invading Yankees. We did help end the war in favor
of the invaded peoples, and black people did achieve most equal rights.

But now, decades later, the world still looks as bad or even
worse!

I recently read, “Under My Skin” Doris Lessing’s
first volume of her autobiography. She wrote this nearly 20 years ago
when in her 70s. I quote from a passage on page 282 that took place
during World War II or soon afterwards:

“We took it for granted that when the working class – or
the blacks or any other disadvantaged people – took power, they
would be inspired by only the purest and most disinterested ideals.”

What do we have in the world today so long afterwards?

1. A black-faced man as the most powerful president in the world engaging
in more aggressive wars at one time than any time in US history. And
where I I live, Denmark, the so-called “red” government
continues murdering people in Afghanistan and backing capitalism as
did the neo-liberal government.

2. Former Tamil leaders of the Liberation Tigers of Tamil Eelam (LTTE)
once fighting for the welfare and liberation of an entire people now
engage in murdering, raping, kidnapping into slavery and prostitution,
robbing their own people. Karuna, Devananda, Pillaivan—leaders
of the groups TMVP, ERDP and others—work for some of the most
vicious rulers in the modern world, the Rajapaksa family regime which
commits genocide against the Tamil people.

4. Black, brown, yellow-skin people once achieving government power
have committed genocide or mass murder and other violent crimes against
their own people. Former revolutionary leaders, many of them former
guerrillas who fought for liberation of the masses or ethnic groups
in many countries of Africa, Latin America, Asia and Europe now work
for capitalism and material riches.

The United States committed genocide against the Vietnamese, who are
now engaging in capitalism as is China, led by the false Communist party.

5. Cuba, the most successful revolutionary nation promising equality,
an end to racism and poverty based upon a socialist economy and aligned
with the oppressed of the world is now regressing towards capitalism
and inequality, and with a foreign policy that backs the vicious Sinhalese
chauvinist governments and ignores the suffering plight of the Tamil
people.

I am deeply hurt and disappointed that the government of Cuba—where
I lived and worked side by side with the people and government for eight
years—as well as the socialistic-progressive governments of Venezuela,
Bolivia and other Latin American governments have not understood that
their own principle of international solidarity must apply to the Tamil
people of Sri Lanka.

Cuba with the other ALBA countries contend that they are opposed to
the United States and European countries “intervening” in
Sri Lanka’s internal affairs. But, in reality, all that the US
asks is that the Sri Lankan government investigate itself and find some
scapegoats to punish for massive war crimes that can no longer be hidden.
But the greatest terrorist states’ minor critique of Rajapaksa’s
government for “possibly” committing war crimes is only
a symbol of critique, which allows these false “democracies”
to maintain a public stance, in order to obtain votes from people who
can be beguiled that they are really concerned about the human rights
of any people. This is the perennial Human Rights Geo-Political Game.

ALBA cannot help but know this is so. They know that the US-UK-France-Israel
and others in their alliance have all along supported Sri Lankan chauvinist
governments with money, intelligence, surveillance, armaments, military
boats and aircraft.

The progressive governments must have forgotten the Marxist principle
of self-determination, the very moral principle of the right to life,
the right to equality. What would the current government of Cuba mean
today about what Fidel Castro told author-photographer Lee Lockwood?

“Those who are exploited are our compatriots all over the
world; and the exploiters all over the world are our enemies…Our
country is really the whole world, and all the revolutionaries of the
world are our brothers.” (“Castro’s Cuba, Cuba’s
Fidel”, New York, 1967)

What do Cuba and ALBA governments think today of Lenin and Marx on the
matter of self-determination? In Lenin’s 1916 theses, “The
socialist revolution and the right of nations to self-determination”,
he wrote:

“Victorious socialism must achieve complete democracy and,
consequently, not only bring about the complete equality of nations,
but also give effect to the right of oppressed nations to self-determination,
i.e., the right to free political secession.”

Today this would mean that since the proclaimed socialist state of Sri
Lanka—led by a self-proclaimed coalition of socialists, communists,
Trotskyists, Maoists, Buddhist monks—refuses to grant equal rights
to Tamils and maintains discrimination in language, religion, education
and jobs it is necessary that the Tamils achieve self-determination
through “free political secession”.

Karl Marx, who lived so many years in England and is buried here, supported
national independence for Ireland and did so in the interests of the
socialist movement of the British workers. Marx wrote in a letter, April
9, 1870:

“It is [Britain’s oppression of Ireland] the secret
of the impotence of the English working class, despite their organization,
it is the secret of which the capitalist class maintains its power.”

This is exactly the situation for the past six decades in Sri Lanka.
The Sinhalese workers have been fooled by the Sinhalese ruling class’
promulgation of racism and chauvinism, and the religious system of castes,
to discriminate against Tamils. And Tamils have not been insightful
enough to try to create working class and solidarity alliances with
other ethnic and religious groups.

6. The peoples’ whistle blowing medium Wikileaks is a major factor
in our knowing as much as we do today about the crimes of state. These
communicators, especially those under attack by the terrorist governments—Julian
Assange and Bradley Manning—must be supported. If our joint enemy
succeeds in crushing them we will all suffer because of it.
Why is it, then, that there are so few of the 99% who are actually engaged
in anti-capitalist action? Why do most of the workers, the poor and
disenfranchised still cling to supporting one or another of the capitalist
political parties?

The answer(s) could lie in a lack of confidence in our selves as worker
leaders. We place too great a reliance on authorities be they religious
or spiritual gurus or political leaders. India, for example, is still
a hot bed of authoritarianism, which I witnessed recently during my
book tour. The caste system is as thoroughly racist as apartheid. It
is absolutely maniacal that racism is practiced within the same race
or nationality or religion. This self-defeating practice is capitalism’s
greatest weapon to divide and conquer. Socialism is absolutely impossible
as long as people fall into the self-defeating trap of perpetuating
castes and discrimination of one ethnic group over another.

We must realize that government leaders, and most religious-spiritual
leaders, are not like us. They are well paid by our taxes, and many
skim money from the public tills and under-the-table deals. They do
not suffer materially. They are not unemployed or homeless. We must
drop the illusion that they will save us.

There are positive struggles

Despite my despair of the inhumanity of humanity we do have some positive
movements underway. The Mondragon cooperatives in Spain is a possible
vehicle for the transition from capitalism to socialism, at least the
workers are also owners and decision-makers, which is more than socialist
states accomplished. The Bolivian indigenous culture to Live Well, and
not to live better—never content with just enough—is another
equalitarian movement. Another great step forward is that of Occupy
Wall Street. The OWS has extended into many US cities and a few other
countries. In one important way, it is more advanced than the movements
I was part of in the 1960s-70s. Our movements were usually single-issue
oriented. Only a minority of us held socialist or communist views and
we could not organize any significant movement for socialism. The OWS
starts from the logic that it is capitalism that is the true culprit.
This movement has to move out to the working class and convince them
of this reality. Many are making efforts.

Then we have Arab Spring. Here are millions of people literally risking
their lives, willing to be killed while fighting through non-violent
actions a democratic form of rule with jobs and food for the majority
who are poor. I am not referring to Libya, which is a different struggle—one
mainly rooted in war lord clans seeking national power supported by
the imperialists. They were successful in aborting the desires of the
initial protestors who were, in fact, positively influenced by the masses
in Tunisia and Egypt. Even though two brutal dictators were thrown out,
the capitalist system led by the army and corporations are still in
control. The US-NATO’s key ally Saudi Arabia is used to brutally
put down protestors in Bahrain. Today, the situation in Syria is most
complicated. All sorts of forces are at play and there is no clear revolutionary
force fighting for justice and equality midst the clash of national
and foreign powers’ manipulations.

The Human Rights Game!

As we meet today, the 19th session of the so-called Human Rights Council
is meeting. Nothing will come out of this farce to favor the Tamil people.
The US had hoped that Rajapaksa would ease real critique of his war
crimes by adopting his own Lessons Learnt and Reconciliation Commission’s
mild findings and recommendations, and that he would say so at this
HRC session. But the arrogant king of the lions did not feel compelled
to lift even that finger. He has had all the support he needs from the
west and genocidal Zionist Israel all these years, and in latter years
from India, Russia, China and Iran. But western governments live in
an historical conjuncture where they need to raise the façade
of protecting human rights, in order to pacify their populations and
to conduct “humanitarian operation” wars for profit and
global domination.

Unlike in previous years, however, the US now feels like pushing the
human rights button a bit more firmly since it has lost its hope of
obtaining access to Trincomalee harbor for a naval base. The rising
super-power China already obtained its naval-commercial port at Hambontota,
and it looks like either it or the former super-power Russia will be
granted the Trincomalee port too.

The latest information is that the US will introduce its own resolution
regarding Sri Lanka in the last week of the HRC session (March 19-23).
It purportedly will call upon the government to implement “the
constructive recommendations in the LLRC report and additionally to
take immediate steps to…address serious allegations of violations
of international law by initiating credible and independent investigations
and prosecutions of those responsible for such violations.”

As in the special HRC session in May 2009, the US and its European allies
are calling upon Sri Lanka’s government to police itself. But
this time, given its loss of favoritism, the US has added that it should
initiate “independent investigations”, albeit the US does
not back the UN’s own expert panel report calling for “an
international independent investigation”.

There is a fine line between the government’s own LLRC and what
the US is calling for but there is much fanfare in the world community
of geo-politics. Cuba-ALBA, and the Non-Aligned Movement of 113 nations
generally, resist, understandably enough, when the major imperialist
state and its allies among the former colonial powers demand that they
do this or that. Cuba-ALBA lands had long been forced to bow to these
demands. While Cuba-ALBA are not terrorist states as are the US-EU-NATO
states, they have fallen into the trap of “an enemy of my enemy
is my friend”. What they fail to recognize, or admit, is that
the western powers are not the only terrorist states. They fall into
the double morality trap of backing the sovereignty of all Third World
governments no matter how they treat their populations. Sri Lanka government
is a terrible violator of human rights, and not just against the Tamils,
but also against Muslims, the indigenous tribes, and it also exploits
Sinhalese workers, the poor, and lower castes.

Cuba has told Sri Lanka that it “extends its utmost support to
Sri Lanka at the 19th Summit of the UN Human Rights Council in Geneva.”
The Cuban ambassador to Sri Lanka who conveyed this message of President
Raul Castro is named Nursia Castro Guevara, of all names. She stated
that her government “vehemently rejects fake allegations on human
rights against Sri Lanka”.

It is immoral, it is a shame that Cuba totally dismisses the testimony
of thousands of eye witnesses to and victims of mass murders, rapes,
incarceration; and then dismiss as well serious reports by international
organizations, including the findings of the UN expert panel on accountability,
the videos broadcast by Channel Four, the diplomatic correspondence
leaked by Wikileaks.

My statements here must not be taken out of context and misinterpreted,
as Sri Lankan officials and some Cuba-ALBA solidarity people have done,
to represent my position as one of siding with the US. I have not supported
US governments for half-a-century.

I predict that the majority on the HRC will vote against the US’s
mild resolution to be put forth and they will do so, in part, because
of opposition to the US’s constant human rights abuse in many
parts of the world.

But the fact that the US will lose its resolution will result in a victory
for it. That nothing will occur at the HRC to force the hand of Sri
Lanka’s war crimes will be used by the “democratic”
West to pontificate against Cuba-ALBA, NAM, Russia, China, Iran complicity
with war crimes. And these war crimes, which the US & co. helped
create, will remain without accountability just as the US actually wishes.
Otherwise, if there were a real investigation, the US’s own dirty
linen could be exposed. Yet for many millions of unaware people in the
US, the West generally and elsewhere, it will seem as though these governments
are the good guys fighting the bad guys—communists and former
communists, and “third world colored” governments. It should
mean votes for the puppet president of the US.

What can be done!

Tamils must not rely on the greatest terrorist in the world to help
them. The Yankees offer no "help" without dire costs. The
United States of America kills tens of millions; tortures hundreds of
thousands; starves hundreds of millions. We must be aware that since
World War 11, the US has invaded or intervened militarily 160 times
in 66 countries. At present they are murdering people in seven countries:
Afghanistan, Iraq, Pakistan, Somalia, Ethiopia, Uganda, and until recently
in Libya where their allies continue murdering people. They arm some
Syrian rebel elements and prepare to invade Iran, or let Israel do so.

Without US support to Israel, the Palestinians would be a free people
today. Zionist Israel commits genocide against the Palestinian people.
It offered Mossad intelligence, great amounts of weaponry, fast Dvora
naval attack craft, Kfir killer aircraft and even pilots to Sri Lanka
to murder the Tamils. After the end of the war, Sri Lanka sent its military
chief-of-staff, Donald Perera, to Israel as its ambassador as a reward
for Zionist assistance. He told the largest Zionist daily, Yedioth Abornoth,:
“I consider your country a partner in the war against terror,”
thus coupling terrorism with the Palestinians’ struggle for their
homeland and the Tamils’ right to exist in peace and equality.
He also supported the cold-blooded murders in international waters,
on May 31, 2010, of nine Turkish solidarity activists bound for Gaza
with survival supplies.

I believe that your organizations must create grass roots organizations
and discuss these realities. You have to abandon false hopes and stop
wasting time lobbying terrorist states. You need to discuss these realities
with people’s grass roots and indigenous organizations and unions
in Latin America, Palestine and elsewhere where people are struggling
for sovereignty, for liberation. You must explain to them your history,
why you had to take up arms and fight for separation, for an independent
nation. They have to hear of your suffering, of your struggles, why
Tamil Eelam, political separation is a necessity when ruling powers
will not grant a people their basic democratic and equal rights.

The progressive governments have won majority votes for new constitutions
in Bolivia, in Ecuador, in Venezuela that grant equal rights to their
indigenous peoples. In Bolivia, for instance, under the new constitution
there are four official national languages, three of them are indigenous
as well as Spanish. If these people could know you simply want these
same rights, they might listen to you and stop backing Sri Lanka.

Tamils, stand up to all terrorist states, which also support
the terrorist state of Sri Lanka!

We must work for a worldwide boycott of Sri Lanka and join in the boycott
of Israel.

We must communicate with other people who are struggling for their rights
and join forces.

We must join with others to combat the growing racism-fascism in the
West against Muslims and Arabs.

We must prove the case of genocide against Tamils as did the International
War Crimes Tribunal during the war against Southeast Asians. We could
ask the Permanent People’s Tribunal—which found that Sri
Lanka committed war crimes and crimes against humanity during its sessions
in Dublin, Ireland, January 2010—to take up such an investigation.

We have wandered the deserts and the seas. We have been hungry
and thirsty. We have been murdered and tortured. We are of the working
class, of the castes; we are many races and nationalities. We share
a common vision: freedom and equality; bread and water on the table;
a shelter over our heads. We must fight together to live in peace and
harmony.